No problems with battery or AirPlay here. Love my 4S. Hope they can fix the problems that others are having.
This is beginning to sound like the Antennagate meme. A "problem" that is technically true, but not a practical issue for the vast majority of users a vast majority of the time. I never had an antenna issue with my 4 and I have no battery issues with my 4S, and neither does anyone I know personally. I suspect the problem has to do with a rather complex set of conditions and settings that all have to be in play for there to be any noticeable effect. OS updates will mitigate some of them, but some kid in mom's basement will continue to find ways around the fix and blog about it, keeping the story alive even though it's essentially meaningless.
Remember, those with issues complain in spectacularly higher proportions than those without issues praise. This gives the impression in the blogosphere that there is a common problem, when it actuality it is very uncommon.
The betas usually have their own set of problems. a newer beta does not solve bugs in the previous release version. This beta still have problems that existed in the 5.0 beta.
I don't know why most articles aren't mentioning the Qualcomm baseband chip. It's new (still only used in the iPhone 4S), world mode chips are still considerably less efficient than dedicated basebands, and from beta to beta we're seeing fairly large jumps in baseband version numbers. I have to assume this is where the issue lies and depending on your network it's going to take a while to iron out all the bugs for virtually everyone.
No problems with battery or AirPlay here. Love my 4S. Hope they can fix the problems that others are having.
I have had one weird battery issue where I lost 40% overnight on "standby". This was after an update to the most recent release and, I think, it was downloading all the apps again since I had done a restore.
I have the luxury of comparing identically configured IP4 vs IP4S. Both 32GB models, exactly the same apps loaded, same settings, same location, same Airport Extreme (actually ran the test at sisters home over Thanksgiving with same results, so actually two different Airport Extremes). I have diagnostic & usage reporting, Location based iAds, and time zone setting disabled on both. For the test, I also killed all apps other than DataMan and phone. iCloud backup was activated on both devices. WIth both devices fully charged, setting side by side overnight (roughly 9 hours), the IP4S discharged approx 25% MORE than the IP4 (IP4 was at 94%, IP4S down to 70%). DataMan reports the WiFi traffic as identical (within a couple of kilobytes) for the test period, with virtually no 3G activity over the test period (about 20KB on each).
The only other difference was that I had the raise to active feature on Siri active on the IP4S, so I need to rerun the test with that deactivated to see if the results are dramatically different.
I have also noticed that the IP4S discharge rate is all over the place in real use. Sometimes, it goes for several hours with only a few % of discharge and other times, it can drop 10-15% in a matter of an hour or so. In typical daily usage, my IP4S will not make it through a complete day on a single charge unless the usage is minimal, while my spouse, who texts, takes lots of pics (work) and emails those pics in medium size (again work), runs a variety of apps and talks, virtually always makes it thru a typical 12hour day with no problem.
There is definitely something amiss here.
BTW, both iPhones are running 5.0.1 (9A405). As a matter of habit, I did a hard reboot on both after the upgrade to 5.0.1.
No, the iPhone has noise isolation, where the second mic picks up any unwanted noise and filters out any frequencies that aren't desired. The bug he is referring to deals with the feedback from that noise isolation through the headphone jack, and by extension, into his noise-cancelling headphones. The person on the other end of the phone hears nothing but his voice, but he hears all the unwanted noise that is being fed back. I don't know if it is a software issue or a hardware issue, though. It could be a faulty analog-to-digital converter, it could be a weak capacitor, or it could just be a bug in the OS that needs patched. That's hard to tell. If I were the OP, I would certainly swap out my phone to try and eliminate any hardware problems.
That doesn't sound right to me. Noise isolation doesn't use a 2nd mic. Noise cancellation uses the 2nd mic to pick up outside sounds that are also picked up by the primary microphone. They're mixed together out of phase. This cancels anything in common, which in a perfect world, doesn't include your own voice speaking into the phone. It has nothing to do with filtering out "unwanted frequencies".
This 2-mic "mixing out of phase" technique was actually first used by the Grateful Dead in live performance to get higher levels without feedback.
My battery is going down by 6% every hour while just sitting on my desk. According to apples battery specs it is only suppose to go down .5% every hour in standby. I assumed everybody was having the issue but, after reading the comments I seem to be in the minority. I guess I will shut off notifications, push email and location services to see if a big difference is made.
On a sidenote, I do think I have crappy battery life. But I also know that iOS 5 is much complex than ever and as more and more features are enabled, it will make people use it differently. I also believe that some rogue apps may be causing issues as well. While there is an approval process for apps, sometimes things slip by.
This battery fiasco will only get worse in the future as Apple is obsessed with thin devices and that leaves less space for battery. Naturally they aren't going to make brick sized phones, but battery size is important here. For me, and I will always state this, iOS 5.0 beta 5 was the most superior version of iOS for me. Battery life was far superior than it is now. Who knows what made it work.
I agree. I don't recall any battery life issues running iOS 5 betas for many weeks on iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and iPad 2. I just didn't see issues until iOS 5 was released which causes me to believe this is related to a feature that wasn't active in the iOS 5 beta releases which implies either baseband issues or something related to Siri or (not likely) late changes to iCloud.
I have used essentially the same settings for years (excluding additional features introduced by new versions). I recently reset my phone and found many settings changed which is to be expected but I wonder how often this might be an issue. I know many users on this and other forums aren't typical users but I wonder how many of us technophiles are reporting issues.
Wi-Fi = On
Notifications = Weather, Phone, Messages, Reminders, Calendar, Game Center, Stock, Mail, (Facebook) Messenger, WhatsApp, Facebook, Waze
Location Services = Camera, Siri, Waze, Find My iPhone, Status Bar Icon
Sounds = 50% with Vibrate, Keyboard Clicks are off
Brightness = 50%, Auto-Brightness is on
Battery Percentage = on
Diagnostics & Usage = Automatically Send
Cellular Data = off (was on)
Bluetooth = off (was on)
Auto-Lock = 5 min
iCloud = everything on (Mail, Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, Bookmarks, Notes, Photo Stream, Documents & Data, Find My iPhone)
Mail, Contacts, Calendars = fetch (15 minutes) (2 of 4 accounts were set to push)
Automatic Downloads = everything on (Music, Apps, Books)
I have the luxury of comparing identically configured IP4 vs IP4S. Both 32GB models, exactly the same apps loaded, same settings, same location, same Airport Extreme (actually ran the test at sisters home over Thanksgiving with same results, so actually two different Airport Extremes). I have diagnostic & usage reporting, Location based iAds, and time zone setting disabled on both. For the test, I also killed all apps other than DataMan and phone. iCloud backup was activated on both devices. WIth both devices fully charged, setting side by side overnight (roughly 9 hours), the IP4S discharged approx 25% MORE than the IP4 (IP4 was at 94%, IP4S down to 70%). DataMan reports the WiFi traffic as identical (within a couple of kilobytes) for the test period, with virtually no 3G activity over the test period (about 20KB on each).
The only other difference was that I had the raise to active feature on Siri active on the IP4S, so I need to rerun the test with that deactivated to see if the results are dramatically different.
I have also noticed that the IP4S discharge rate is all over the place in real use. Sometimes, it goes for several hours with only a few % of discharge and other times, it can drop 10-15% in a matter of an hour or so. In typical daily usage, my IP4S will not make it through a complete day on a single charge unless the usage is minimal, while my spouse, who texts, takes lots of pics (work) and emails those pics in medium size (again work), runs a variety of apps and talks, virtually always makes it thru a typical 12hour day with no problem.
There is definitely something amiss here.
BTW, both iPhones are running 5.0.1 (9A405). As a matter of habit, I did a hard reboot on both after the upgrade to 5.0.1.
David
The standby battery use seems normal. Remember it is rated 200 hours for 4S and 300 hours for 4.
My battery life has been horrible since day 1. I picked up my phone on release morning on my way from FL to Pittsburgh. I was at the football game that Sunday and my phone was dead before half time. Yes I was taking pictures and using my phone a lot but my 4 would last until coming back home after games at least.
Now in the morning my phone is in the 30% range by about 10 am (waking at 6 am). My 4 would make it until almost the end of the work day. So I charge it before I go to lunch then before 6 pm it is normally back to 30% again so I charge it before leaving work.
I am a heavy user I know, I use CNBC RT off an on during the day which is a battery killer as well. But I have changed all settings to help the battery and it doesn't help much. I am not upset as I have an iPad charger at work so my phone charges quickly. I also have an iPad car charger so I can charge my phone quickly even on short trips in the car. I just don't think I should be needing to charge my phone at least twice a day sometimes three times. If I don't charge at night when I wake up I will have lost about 20% in 6 hours on standby.
On a side note does anyone else have issues with Safari not loading pages? Even if I go to the multi-task bar to close it out and bring Safari back up it still will not load. I have to turn my phone off then back on to get Safari to work again.
Personally I believe it's a hardware problem that is of course limited to a very small number of users.
It can't be only software, because all 3 of my 4S have no battery issues, in fact way better battery life than the 4's they replaced. The same goes for over 60 people I know personally with the 4S, all of whom I've contacted re: this issue.
So basically, Apple is just delaying the inevitable until launches have rolled out.
Though my sarcasm could be worded more clearly you've completely missed the point. AnandTech hasn't received any kit to test because it hasn't been released in the US. There is also no history of Samsung+Android devices besting Apple in battery life. That makes the device a impossible option for a temporary suggestion over the iPhone to get better battery life. The one area where one can best is the iPhone is with 3G talk time but that is because Apple is using the world-mode chip where this simply isn't as good as dedicated CDMA chips but if you need that much talk time and have so little concern for internet access I wonder if a smartphone makes any sense at all.
My battery is going down by 6% every hour while just sitting on my desk. According to apples battery specs it is only suppose to go down .5% every hour in standby. I assumed everybody was having the issue but, after reading the comments I seem to be in the minority. I guess I will shut off notifications, push email and location services to see if a big difference is made.
Do you have any email accounts configured? ICloud, Exchange any other IMAP push? If you do then your phone is not just sitting in standby mode.
I have been using an old 3GS as a second handset this week without any data services or apps running and get 3 days on a single charge. Between charges I clocked up 5.5hrs of calls.
With my 4 I get a day of use with 3 exchange accounts and iCloud.
Comments
No problems with battery or AirPlay here. Love my 4S. Hope they can fix the problems that others are having.
This is beginning to sound like the Antennagate meme. A "problem" that is technically true, but not a practical issue for the vast majority of users a vast majority of the time. I never had an antenna issue with my 4 and I have no battery issues with my 4S, and neither does anyone I know personally. I suspect the problem has to do with a rather complex set of conditions and settings that all have to be in play for there to be any noticeable effect. OS updates will mitigate some of them, but some kid in mom's basement will continue to find ways around the fix and blog about it, keeping the story alive even though it's essentially meaningless.
Remember, those with issues complain in spectacularly higher proportions than those without issues praise. This gives the impression in the blogosphere that there is a common problem, when it actuality it is very uncommon.
Any other temporary suggestions?
The betas usually have their own set of problems. a newer beta does not solve bugs in the previous release version. This beta still have problems that existed in the 5.0 beta.
I don't know why most articles aren't mentioning the Qualcomm baseband chip. It's new (still only used in the iPhone 4S), world mode chips are still considerably less efficient than dedicated basebands, and from beta to beta we're seeing fairly large jumps in baseband version numbers. I have to assume this is where the issue lies and depending on your network it's going to take a while to iron out all the bugs for virtually everyone.
Which Android-based phone is that?PS: Your signature size is getting very annoying. I think the rules state a 4 line maximum.
No problems with battery or AirPlay here. Love my 4S. Hope they can fix the problems that others are having.
I have had one weird battery issue where I lost 40% overnight on "standby". This was after an update to the most recent release and, I think, it was downloading all the apps again since I had done a restore.
No problems with battery or AirPlay here. Love my 4S. Hope they can fix the problems that others are having.
Same here. I wonder what those with issue have or are doing differently from us?
The only other difference was that I had the raise to active feature on Siri active on the IP4S, so I need to rerun the test with that deactivated to see if the results are dramatically different.
I have also noticed that the IP4S discharge rate is all over the place in real use. Sometimes, it goes for several hours with only a few % of discharge and other times, it can drop 10-15% in a matter of an hour or so. In typical daily usage, my IP4S will not make it through a complete day on a single charge unless the usage is minimal, while my spouse, who texts, takes lots of pics (work) and emails those pics in medium size (again work), runs a variety of apps and talks, virtually always makes it thru a typical 12hour day with no problem.
There is definitely something amiss here.
BTW, both iPhones are running 5.0.1 (9A405). As a matter of habit, I did a hard reboot on both after the upgrade to 5.0.1.
David
No, the iPhone has noise isolation, where the second mic picks up any unwanted noise and filters out any frequencies that aren't desired. The bug he is referring to deals with the feedback from that noise isolation through the headphone jack, and by extension, into his noise-cancelling headphones. The person on the other end of the phone hears nothing but his voice, but he hears all the unwanted noise that is being fed back. I don't know if it is a software issue or a hardware issue, though. It could be a faulty analog-to-digital converter, it could be a weak capacitor, or it could just be a bug in the OS that needs patched. That's hard to tell. If I were the OP, I would certainly swap out my phone to try and eliminate any hardware problems.
That doesn't sound right to me. Noise isolation doesn't use a 2nd mic. Noise cancellation uses the 2nd mic to pick up outside sounds that are also picked up by the primary microphone. They're mixed together out of phase. This cancels anything in common, which in a perfect world, doesn't include your own voice speaking into the phone. It has nothing to do with filtering out "unwanted frequencies".
This 2-mic "mixing out of phase" technique was actually first used by the Grateful Dead in live performance to get higher levels without feedback.
PS: Your signature size is getting very annoying. I think the rules state a 4 line maximum.
I agree. Aside from the pointless double spacing, the red dot at the end seems to exist just to make it longer?
When moving to a low 3G signal area out of the city obviously battery will be slurped with no 2G setting available.
Seems to me that they chose not to discuss the obvious which is that you now need decent 3G to get decent battery life.
On a sidenote, I do think I have crappy battery life. But I also know that iOS 5 is much complex than ever and as more and more features are enabled, it will make people use it differently. I also believe that some rogue apps may be causing issues as well. While there is an approval process for apps, sometimes things slip by.
This battery fiasco will only get worse in the future as Apple is obsessed with thin devices and that leaves less space for battery. Naturally they aren't going to make brick sized phones, but battery size is important here. For me, and I will always state this, iOS 5.0 beta 5 was the most superior version of iOS for me. Battery life was far superior than it is now. Who knows what made it work.
I agree. I don't recall any battery life issues running iOS 5 betas for many weeks on iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS and iPad 2. I just didn't see issues until iOS 5 was released which causes me to believe this is related to a feature that wasn't active in the iOS 5 beta releases which implies either baseband issues or something related to Siri or (not likely) late changes to iCloud.
I have used essentially the same settings for years (excluding additional features introduced by new versions). I recently reset my phone and found many settings changed which is to be expected but I wonder how often this might be an issue. I know many users on this and other forums aren't typical users but I wonder how many of us technophiles are reporting issues.
Wi-Fi = On
Notifications = Weather, Phone, Messages, Reminders, Calendar, Game Center, Stock, Mail, (Facebook) Messenger, WhatsApp, Facebook, Waze
Location Services = Camera, Siri, Waze, Find My iPhone, Status Bar Icon
Sounds = 50% with Vibrate, Keyboard Clicks are off
Brightness = 50%, Auto-Brightness is on
Battery Percentage = on
Diagnostics & Usage = Automatically Send
Cellular Data = off (was on)
Bluetooth = off (was on)
Auto-Lock = 5 min
iCloud = everything on (Mail, Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, Bookmarks, Notes, Photo Stream, Documents & Data, Find My iPhone)
Mail, Contacts, Calendars = fetch (15 minutes) (2 of 4 accounts were set to push)
Automatic Downloads = everything on (Music, Apps, Books)
I have the luxury of comparing identically configured IP4 vs IP4S. Both 32GB models, exactly the same apps loaded, same settings, same location, same Airport Extreme (actually ran the test at sisters home over Thanksgiving with same results, so actually two different Airport Extremes). I have diagnostic & usage reporting, Location based iAds, and time zone setting disabled on both. For the test, I also killed all apps other than DataMan and phone. iCloud backup was activated on both devices. WIth both devices fully charged, setting side by side overnight (roughly 9 hours), the IP4S discharged approx 25% MORE than the IP4 (IP4 was at 94%, IP4S down to 70%). DataMan reports the WiFi traffic as identical (within a couple of kilobytes) for the test period, with virtually no 3G activity over the test period (about 20KB on each).
The only other difference was that I had the raise to active feature on Siri active on the IP4S, so I need to rerun the test with that deactivated to see if the results are dramatically different.
I have also noticed that the IP4S discharge rate is all over the place in real use. Sometimes, it goes for several hours with only a few % of discharge and other times, it can drop 10-15% in a matter of an hour or so. In typical daily usage, my IP4S will not make it through a complete day on a single charge unless the usage is minimal, while my spouse, who texts, takes lots of pics (work) and emails those pics in medium size (again work), runs a variety of apps and talks, virtually always makes it thru a typical 12hour day with no problem.
There is definitely something amiss here.
BTW, both iPhones are running 5.0.1 (9A405). As a matter of habit, I did a hard reboot on both after the upgrade to 5.0.1.
David
The standby battery use seems normal. Remember it is rated 200 hours for 4S and 300 hours for 4.
Now in the morning my phone is in the 30% range by about 10 am (waking at 6 am). My 4 would make it until almost the end of the work day. So I charge it before I go to lunch then before 6 pm it is normally back to 30% again so I charge it before leaving work.
I am a heavy user I know, I use CNBC RT off an on during the day which is a battery killer as well. But I have changed all settings to help the battery and it doesn't help much. I am not upset as I have an iPad charger at work so my phone charges quickly. I also have an iPad car charger so I can charge my phone quickly even on short trips in the car. I just don't think I should be needing to charge my phone at least twice a day sometimes three times. If I don't charge at night when I wake up I will have lost about 20% in 6 hours on standby.
On a side note does anyone else have issues with Safari not loading pages? Even if I go to the multi-task bar to close it out and bring Safari back up it still will not load. I have to turn my phone off then back on to get Safari to work again.
Which Android-based phone is that?PS: Your signature size is getting very annoying. I think the rules state a 4 line maximum.
The Galaxy Nexus is no where on that list.
It can't be only software, because all 3 of my 4S have no battery issues, in fact way better battery life than the 4's they replaced. The same goes for over 60 people I know personally with the 4S, all of whom I've contacted re: this issue.
So basically, Apple is just delaying the inevitable until launches have rolled out.
The Galaxy Nexus is no where on that list.
Though my sarcasm could be worded more clearly you've completely missed the point. AnandTech hasn't received any kit to test because it hasn't been released in the US. There is also no history of Samsung+Android devices besting Apple in battery life. That makes the device a impossible option for a temporary suggestion over the iPhone to get better battery life. The one area where one can best is the iPhone is with 3G talk time but that is because Apple is using the world-mode chip where this simply isn't as good as dedicated CDMA chips but if you need that much talk time and have so little concern for internet access I wonder if a smartphone makes any sense at all.
Personally I believe it's a hardware problem that is of course limited to a very small number of users.
I think it's HW variations that can be resolved with firmware updates.
My battery is going down by 6% every hour while just sitting on my desk. According to apples battery specs it is only suppose to go down .5% every hour in standby. I assumed everybody was having the issue but, after reading the comments I seem to be in the minority. I guess I will shut off notifications, push email and location services to see if a big difference is made.
Do you have any email accounts configured? ICloud, Exchange any other IMAP push? If you do then your phone is not just sitting in standby mode.
I have been using an old 3GS as a second handset this week without any data services or apps running and get 3 days on a single charge. Between charges I clocked up 5.5hrs of calls.
With my 4 I get a day of use with 3 exchange accounts and iCloud.